Lego Minifigures Protected By EU Court

An EU court has ruled Lego’s little men and women have been protected by trademark and therefore cannot be copied, an EU court has ruled. Lego had registered the “three-dimensional trademark” in 2000.

A company called Best-Lock, a competitor who make similar interlocking blocks, had challenged Lego’s attempt to protect the shape of its minifigures. They argued that the shape of Lego’s minifigures was determined by the fact that they were part of a toy that involved “interlocking building blocks for play purposes”.

But the appeal was dismissed by the General Court of the European Union.